1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a game machine that displays the direction of an attack from an enemy character in a readily recognizable manner. The present invention also relates to a computer program for realizing such a game machine, and further to a method of displaying certain objects in a game.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various shooting games have so far been developed in which the player operates a predetermined character (for example, a soldier, a fighter, a tank) to attack an opponent character by utilizing weapons such bullets, missiles, and laser beams. Hereinafter, the character operated by the player will be referred to as “player character”, and the opponent character as “enemy character”.
In the shooting game, generally, scores are added when the player activates the player character to attack the enemy character and successfully defeats (for example, when the bullet or missile directly strikes) the enemy character. On the other hand, when the player character is attacked by the enemy character, the player character, suffering the damage, loses some of its hit points (power) given in advance. When the accumulated damage exceeds a predetermined value and so the hit points of the player character become zero, the game is over. In order to avoid this, the player has to operate the player character to attack the enemy character while also trying to dodge the attack from the enemy character.
However, the display screen only displays a part of the virtual game space, and hence the player is unable to notice the presence of an enemy character located at a position not included in the display screen. The player cannot dodge the attack from the enemy character not displayed on the display screen, and cannot attack the enemy character either, since the presence of the enemy is not recognized. To alleviate such disadvantage against the player, some newly developed shooting games are provided with a function to notify the player of the position of an enemy character that is not displayed on the display screen (see Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. H11-70274, for example).
Specifically, a game displays on the screen a radar that indicates the position of the enemy character. The radar displays, for example, the position of the enemy character in the virtual game space viewed from above with the player character placed at the center, so that the player can recognize the relative position and direction of the enemy character with respect to the player character. Another game displays on the screen a marker that indicates the direction in which the enemy character has moved, when the enemy character moves out of the display screen. In view of such marker, the player can recognize the direction where the enemy character is located.
However, in the case where a number of enemy characters are present in the virtual game space, in the former game the radar indicates a number of positions of the enemy characters, and in the latter a number of markers appear on the display screen. Such display of many markers and the like makes the screen uncomfortable to watch, and besides the player feels perplexed with which of the enemy characters to focus on, since all of the enemy characters do not always attack at a time. Accordingly, it is not always best to notify the player of the position of all the enemy characters, on the display screen.
In the case where a number of enemy characters are present in the virtual game space, it is preferable, rather than notifying the player of the position of all the enemy characters, to notify the player of the position of only the enemy character that is making the attack, because thus the game screen can be simplified and the player can concentrate on dealing with the enemy character that is making the attack. In other words, all that the player is to do upon being attacked by the enemy character is either dodge a succeeding attack from the enemy character or attack that enemy character, and hence it becomes much easier to operate the player character. Accordingly, a shooting game has been developed that displays, when the player character is attacked by the enemy character, a damage mark indicating the direction of the attack from the enemy character (hereinafter, “attack direction”).
FIG. 13 is a schematic drawing for explaining the conventional shooting game that displays the damage mark indicating the attack direction. FIG. 13 depicts a display screen showing a scene of the game, from the viewpoint of the player character in the three-dimensional (hereinafter, 3D) virtual game space.
The screen shown in FIG. 13 includes a machine gun GUN, the enemy character EC, and the damage mark DM. The machine gun GUN represents the machine gun carried by the player character, and the sight of the machine gun is displayed. The enemy character EC represents the character that attacks the player character. The damage mark DM is an arcuate mark that appears when the player character is attacked, in different directions and positions so as to indicate the attack direction. The damage mark DM appears on a display region formed along a circle formed about the center of the screen, in a shape corresponding to a quarter of that circle. The damage mark DM can be rotationally displayed at four different positions, namely an upper, lower, left and right position about the center of the circle. In FIG. 13, the damage mark DM is displayed at the upper position so as to bulge upward. The four display positions of the damage mark DM correspond to four regions about the player character in the virtual game space, namely a forward region, right region, left region, and rear region, with respect to the front of the player character. In other words, a circle is horizontally drawn about the player character, and the four regions defined by equally dividing such circle in four parts in reference to the front of the player character respectively correspond to the four display positions and four convex shapes of the arc of the damage mark DM (upper position and upwardly convex, right position and rightwardly convex, left position and leftwardly convex, and lower position and downwardly convex).
Thus, when the player character is attacked from the forward direction, the damage mark DM appears at the upper position in the upwardly convex shape, and when the attack comes from the right direction the damage mark DM appears at the right position in the rightwardly convex shape. When the player character is attacked from the left direction, the damage mark DM appears at the left position in the leftwardly convex shape, and when the attack comes from the rear direction, the damage mark DM appears at the lower position in the downwardly convex shape.
The scene shown in FIG. 13 represents the case that the player character has been attacked by the enemy character EC from the forward direction (in other words, the region where the enemy character EC is located is the forward region), and hence shows the damage mark DM at the upper position in the upwardly convex shape. Here, although the scene of FIG. 13 includes the enemy character EC itself, the damage mark DM equally appears when the player character is attacked, irrespective of whether the enemy character EC is displayed in the screen.
The player can therefore notice that the player character has been attacked in view of the appearance of the damage mark DM, and also recognize the attack direction according to the position and direction of the damage mark DM, to thereby efficiently dodge the succeeding attack from the enemy character EC that has made the attack and to attack that enemy character EC, based on the damage mark DM.
As stated above, the display region of the damage mark DM lies on the circle about the center of the screen (circle on a vertical plane). Accordingly, the player has to translate the attack direction indicated by the damage mark DM into one of the directions with respect to the player character in the virtual game space, and it is difficult to recognize the attack direction.
Also, the attack direction from the enemy character EC shown in FIG. 13 is indicated by the display positions and direction of the arc of the damage mark DM, which respectively corresponds to the four regions (four directions) defined by equally dividing a circle horizontally drawn about the player character in four parts, in reference to the front of the player character. Thus in the conventional games the attack direction in horizontal directions is displayed in directions on the vertical plane, in other words the image showing the game progress (image from the viewpoint of the player character) and the image indicating the attack direction from the enemy character EC (damage mark DM) are not displayed in a screen of a common direction, and therefore it is difficult for the player to recognize the attack direction from the enemy character EC based on the damage mark DM.
Besides, since the damage mark DM only two-dimensionally indicates the attack direction viewed from above the player character, the upward and downward direction (height) of the attack in the game image cannot be indicated. Even though a height difference is set in the game space field and the enemy character EC makes an attack from a higher position or lower position in any of the four regions, the display of the damage mark DM remains the same in either cases. Such display impedes the player from recognizing the upward and downward attack direction in the 3D virtual game space, thereby disabling the player to dodge the succeeding attack of the enemy character and to make a counter attack.